1. Field
The following description relates to a reconfigurable processor and an operand network of the reconfigurable processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a reconfigurable processing architecture refers to a processor that can change the hardware configuration during processing such that the processor is optimized for a specific task. A processor may process a task in a purely hardware manner, in a purely software manner, or as a combination of both hardware and software.
Processing a certain task as purely hardware has difficulties in efficiently handling modifications or changes made during processing of the task due to the fixed functionality of hardware. On the other hand, processing a certain task as purely software can deal with modifications or changes made during processing of the task, however, a processing speed is greatly reduced in comparison to processing of the task as purely hardware.
The reconfigurable architecture has been designed to acquire the advantages of both hardware processing and software processing. In particular, the reconfigurable architecture has attracted a lot of attention in the field of digital signal processing in which the same tasks are repeatedly executed. An example of a reconfigurable architecture is a Coarse-Grained Array (CGA). A typical CGA includes a plurality of processing units that are connected to each other for data transfer.
Generally, the processing units are directly connected to each other through physical wires. However, the direct connections have a problem in that connection structures increase exponentially as the number of the processing units increases. The increase of connection structures results in an increase of system size and energy consumption.